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Recently one of developer of my team had an Google email as

[email protected]

while I know about sub-addressing as

[email protected]

What is that called and how is that important?

Update: I have read Google docs and I could search about + sign in the ID, which is being used for filtering purpose. Where can I find more about dash.

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    A dash is a legal character in an email address. Whether Gmail treats it like the period and ignores it, I do not know.
    – jonsca
    Mar 26, 2017 at 7:36
  • Oh! it mean if I have [email protected] I can use [email protected] or so?
    – Vishal Kumar Sahu
    Mar 26, 2017 at 9:07
  • I read many docs and every where it was mentioned :D But I could not connect to the point that he may be using dash to make his id fancy...
    – Vishal Kumar Sahu
    Mar 26, 2017 at 9:08

3 Answers 3

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Google does not allow dashes in new email addresses, but they might have in the past as @ale said. Either way, it is not like the . or + characters and is a permanent part of the address. For example, if my email address is [email protected], you can't send an email to [email protected] and have it arrive in my inbox. The opposite is also true. So, [email protected] is the email that person signed up with and you can't send an email to him by using [email protected].

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  • Please use only letters (a-z), numbers, and periods. When I use - in creating gmail account. Then how come that guy got that?
    – Vishal Kumar Sahu
    Mar 27, 2017 at 8:22
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    @Vishal: Perhaps he got that account before Gmail tightened up the username requirements.
    – ale
    Mar 27, 2017 at 13:09
  • Your answer is somewhat convincing... :) @ale
    – Vishal Kumar Sahu
    Mar 27, 2017 at 13:36
  • Dashes are allowed in Gmail if you have a business (or whatever it's called) account.
    – Alexej Magura
    Nov 6, 2019 at 19:23
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The decision by Google to allow or not allow the dash in new email addresses they create is a Gmail policy. The dash is considered legal character so they and all other email systems will still send and receive emails that use the dash.

Because the plus and the period are also legal characters in email addresses all email systems will send and receive emails that use them. The Gmail spin on the rules says that they will not assign user names that only differ by the inclusion of periods, and that things after the plus are not important. That spin on the rules allows you to use the + as a filter.

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This answer from you pops up in a Google search. The question asks about hyphens. The answer refers to dashes. Hyphens and dashes are two different things. Hyphen: - / Dash: ─

Can Gmail addresses have hyphens? The decision by Google to allow or not allow the dash in new email addresses they create is a Gmail policy. The dash is considered legal character so they and all other email systems will still send and receive emails that use the dash.

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